Giuliana Rancic opts for double mastectomy

E! News co-host Giuliana Rancic, who underwent a double lumpectomy in October following her diagnosis of breast cancer, announced Monday that she is scheduling a double mastectomy and reconstruction.

"Instead of radiation, I'm gong to go ahead and move forward with a double mastectomy," Rancic, 37, told Ann Curry on "Today." With her husband, real estate developer and first "Apprentice" winner Bill Rancic, by her side, she said that otherwise she would have had to have a mammogram, and its attendant anxiety, every six months to ensure the cancer had not returned.

"At the end," she said, "what it came down to was just choosing to live and not looking over my shoulder for the rest of my life."

Part of the decision, too, she said, came from her and her husband's continuing efforts to have children, which has been chronicled on their Style Network show, "Giuliana and Bill."

"If I'd chosen to just do another lumpectomy and then do radiation and then do anti-estrogen therapy, which means two to five years of medication, that basically puts me into early menopause," Rancic said on "Today."

"Then I would have to put off having a baby for several years. So that was something we took into account."

Tweets of support came from many celebrities, including her co-host, Ryan Seacrest, who wrote, "hinking about u today . . . nothing can stop this woman."

SEE PHOTOSCelebrities who've had cancer

"Thank you for ur love," Rancic tweeted in response to her well-wishers. "Thank u all!"

She told E! she went public with news of her impending surgery because "I would like to take the stigma away. 'Mastectomy,' the word, seemed so scary to me at first."

But she learned, "The surgery has come a long way from 20 years ago. The results can be incredible."

And, she added, "I want to encourage everyone to be proactive with their health and get checked out."